This blog is my look at movies, pop culture and entertainment. It’s a blog by the people that speaks for the people who love entertainment. I love to write and to share my opinion. Hope you enjoy what I have to say.

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Q&A with Director James Ponsoldt

Director James Ponsoldt is known for his gripping 2012 film ‘Smashed’. Now he’s back with his newest film ‘The Spectacular Now’. I sat with James to talk about his film, why people still go to theaters, what we experience watching film, and using art to share emotions.

How did you get into filmmaking?

James Ponsoldt: From the time I was little, I wanted to tell stories. My mom wrote short stories and her father was an artist. He made a living doing commercial art for book covers, and occasionally he would do movie posters. I’ve gone into places with old movies and I’ve found some that he’s painted like Escape from Alcatraz, Papillon, Deliverance, and Dog Day Afternoon. For him, this was not the art he was passionate about, but it was how he paid the bills. I was just always interested in telling stories and more importantly I had a household of support. I had models of how you could make a living making art and doing it didn’t seem totally inconceivable. I have a lot of friend’s parents would say, “You want to do what? You want to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever, I’m not spending my hard earned cash to send you to make little movies.” I was really fortunate. When I was a kid I started to write short stories and novels. I was also obsessed with cartoons and animation. In high school I was a movie buff. I was always in theaters. I worked in theaters….

Me too…..

JP: It was the best. It was like heaven for me. My greatest memories aren’t even specifically the movie I saw, but the experience of a specific movie, and a specific time, with people. Like a beautiful single screen movie palace somewhere or a multiplex.

I’m going to see Fast Six as Cinerama and it’s a great theater. I’m made it a point to go there to watch.

JP: If I had the opportunity to see a film that a filmmaker made with visual design and a sense of scope made for the theaters, I’ll see it in theaters. That’s the difference between TV and film. TV only has a smaller scope, while film’s scope is much bigger. My young cousins could care less. They live by this beautiful drive in and I would watch anything there. For them, they can just Torrent it or watch it on their laptop [laughs].

I hate watching movies by myself. It’s ironic because I do it so much, but I hate it.

JP: On a 9-5 basis most people spend their time repressing emotions. We don’t want to cry in front of a stranger. People are medicated, people go to therapy, people do all these things so they can be “normal”. Going to the movies is one of the few opportunities we have where we can pay $13 to be in a room full of strangers for someone to try and make me cry.

I always tell people that. When people ask me “Why do people still go to movies?” I tell them it’s the only place you can be emotionally free and nobody is going to judge you.

JP: It’s something communal. It can be going to church or hearing your favorite singer, but whatever it is it’s communally experiencing something. It’s also one of the few opportunities where the clock that’s running in our head of what you have to do stops. For two hours you give in to that movie and let it happen to you. You can’t pause it to take a pee break or make a phone call.

Even with your film The Spectacular Now, there’s the experience of relating to the characters on screen. There’s a deeper meaning when you start to identify.

JP: That’s really great art. Whether it’s a song that just hit you, a painting, a movie, or a novel, it communicates an emotion from one person to another. It’s a real emotion. More importantly, really good art or a really good character can make you feel less alone in the world. Everyone has had that experience with some book or some movie.

I interviewed James Gunn for the movie Super and he talked a guy who approached him crying after a screening and said, “That’s me. I’m him in the movie. That’s me.” It’s a character you made up and there’s someone thousands of miles away who identifies with it. That’s powerful.

JP: All the time we’re striving for connection, but at our core we’re horribly afraid that at the end of our life we’ll be disconnected from everyone. We all afraid that nobody will ever know us and we’ll never truly know someone else. We don’t want to admit it because it makes us sound woe-is-me, but that’s the fear. Anything can make you feel connected to another human being or a human experience that’s bigger than you. The experience can be that it humbles you, offers context to what you’re going through, and allows you to process pain.

How were you able to capture the high school experience in your film?

JP: It started with a great novel that Tim Tharp wrote that was nominated for a National Book Award. All the emotion of the film really starts from his book. Scott [Neustadter] and Mike [Weber], who adapted it, are great writers and did a good job of taking what was pure and honest about it and translating it to a 100 min film. For myself, I was profoundly moved by the script. In the back of my mind I always thought I would write something that took place in the 90’s but would be my high school story. I resisted because I didn’t want to write something so negatively autobiographical [laughs]. I read this script and it felt like someone else had written my experience. It felt like somehow this script was meant to come to me. For me there was no disconnect between me and those kids. I’ve been Sutter, I’ve been Aimee, I’ve been both of them at different times. I can see myself in them.

That has to help while you’re shooting. You know how you would feel in those situations.

JP: The goal as a filmmaker is to surround yourself with people who have acute b.s detectors. Their goal is to be present and honest and to not tell lies. You see some films and they come from a place of either fear or this is what we plan on doing and we’ll shoehorn it in. I’d much rather work with people who are okay saying “Where burning money and we aren’t getting it right”, and people say let’s fix it and make it better. We can throw it all away and start over. Everyone involved in The Spectacular Now was working in service of that. If my plan is not working, I’m okay saying my plan is wrong. [laughs]

Sounds like the A-Team…

JP: The reason to make movies is to work with people who are more talented than you who can elevate your idea. If you’re not okay with collaboration…..

You probably shouldn’t be making movies….

JP: Right. Build model cars. Carve wood.

Back to the movie experience, the through lines that exist in film connects generations. If you’ve been in high school, it’s hard not to connect.

JP: I think language sometimes fails to communicate emotions. Either the language doesn’t exist to communicate the very complicated emotions that we’re feeling, or we’re not masters of language in our own lives. I can try to explain to you how I was feeling the day my grandfather died. Or if there was some book or some movie that just was cathartic for me because someone had articulated it and I can give that to you. We can have a shared experience shorthand and actually get closer to understanding each other. I think that’s the goal with film. Sci-Fi can be really emotional, but it can also be fun, nerdy, or deal with religion and politics the way Battlestar Galactica does. It’s mythology. I think mythology can be so meaningful to us. In those archetypes we can see ourselves. Sometimes it’s easier when it’s a cartoon superheroes or some villain.

You can say this thing is an allegory for something else instead of it’s happening in my life right now and it’s terrible…

JP: Or just wanting to escape your life when you see a movie. It’s great when you can both escape your life and find yourself more deeply and honestly than you ever expected.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..